Monotype Unveils The Wolpe Collection

Refreshes Both Popular and Unconventional Designs for Use in Modern
Era

WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Monotype (Nasdaq: TYPE) today took the wraps off its newest typeface
revival project: The
Wolpe Collection – a modernization of five eye-catching, energetic
typefaces from type designer Berthold Wolpe. The new Albertus®
Nova, Wolpe Fanfare™, Wolpe Pegasus™, Wolpe Tempest™ and Sachsenwald™
designs were developed under the direction of Toshi Omagari of The
Monotype Studio. The
Wolpe Collection picks up where Wolpe left off more than a half
century ago, untethering the typefaces from the restrictions of the era,
adding back serifs, curves and angles that have a more natural and
fitting place in today’s modern design landscape.

Monotype’s newest typefaces were modeled around Wolpe’s original
Albertus, Fanfare, Pegasus, Tempest and Sachsenwald designs, embracing
the collective quirks and deliberate inconsistencies. The Wolpe
Collection creates a new spin on each typeface, all of which are close
to his original visions. The designs include angles and adornments that
were removed, changed or condensed to accommodate the limitations of
print typesetting of the 1930s and 1940s – but are now relevant for the
digital era. The restored and newly digitized typefaces include lost
letterforms as well as new weights, alternate characters and expanded
language support.

“The inconsistencies in Wolpe’s designs were freeing in the sense that
it taught me to challenge conventional design and rethink how typefaces
should be constructed,” said Toshi Omagari, Type Designer at Monotype.
“Wolpe made compromises in his designs due to the limitations of
typesetting in his time. However, the modern digital environment means
that typefaces can be revised to capture his original design vision and
applied across a wide range of offline and online media.”

Wolpe’s designs achieved varying levels of popularity when first
created, but weren’t meant to be used exclusively in that era. And while
the Albertus typeface has been used in some modern applications, the
others were never digitized, and as a result, faded from view. Monotype
saw the opportunity to revive these designs with contemporary appeal and
flair.

Albertus Nova (Classic, Authoritative, Warm)

Albertus
Nova is a typeface cut out for modern, global applications – such as
video games – and has been expanded to include a set of small capitals
and five weights, including Thin, Light, Regular, Bold and Black.
Monotype is incorporating original designs including a new capital J and
Q and fixing different proportions and lost details of characters. The
Albertus Nova typeface also reintroduces a number of alternate capital
letters originally created by Wolpe, including an unusual M with a lower
apex and a slanted left stroke, a W with crossing center strokes, a 2
with a closed loop, and an open ampersand. Monotype has also added new
designs including an A with a top bar, a lunar-shaped lower and upper E
and a long-tailed Q and R.

Wolpe Fanfare (Modern, Light, Energetic)

The Wolpe
Fanfare typeface feeds on the energetic personality of the original
Fanfare design, which was built for Fanfare Press in 1935 and has graced
hundreds of book covers – due to its ability to lift letters off the
baseline. The sharp resolution of digital media makes the Wolpe Fanfare
typeface great for display use, feeling both modern and futuristic with
lots of movement.It is available now in six weights including
Thin, Light, Regular, Bold, Black and Inline. Monotype also added a
condensed version of smaller caps to expand titling options.

Wolpe Pegasus (Unique, Deliberately Inconsistent, Academic)

Building on the original Pegasus typeface commissioned by Monotype in
1937 as the text companion to the Albertus design, the Wolpe
Pegasus design takes advantage of its predecessor’s inconsistencies.
For example, characters that would conventionally share details, such as
b, d, p and q, don’t share them in this set. Additionally, some serifs
in the uppercase alphabet of the Pegasus typeface are different. This
was a conscious effort by Wolpe to create individual letterforms. With
the Wolpe Pegasus typeface, Monotype kept every convention-defying
detail of the original character set and added Regular and Bold weights,
with italics, and added typographic enhancements to meet modern demand
such as small caps and various sets of numerals.

Wolpe Tempest (Curved, Extravagant, Animated)

The Tempest typeface was originally created exclusively for use on book
jackets by Fanfare Press and, despite being designed in the mid-1930s,
remains modern and contemporary. The revived Wolpe
Tempest design continues on its original path to set itself apart
from the formal and static sans serif italic typefaces of that era and
offers three weights, including Regular, Bold and Black, preserving
Tempest’s unmistakable profile and skeleton. It also offers alternates
for the A, B, D, E, L, M, N, P, R, X, Y and Z characters which sport
flourishes on entry and exit strokes, and are great for adding extra
embellishments to book titles, logotypes and headlines.

Sachsenwald (Gothic, Provocative, Geometric)

Monotype has digitized the original Sachsenwald
typeface for the first time, adding an alternate X character to the
original set to make it more legible. Wolpe first created the
Sachsenwald design for a German publisher, who abandoned the order just
before World War II. Wolpe then tried to make the Sachsenwald typeface
suitable for use in the general public, with the hope that it would
ignite the interest of “horizon-scanning advertisers” and create a
“passing vogue” for blackletter type. The letterforms are softer and
less decorative than traditional blackletter script. However, the use of
blackletter type declined in favor of more legible Roman type within
Germany and was not popular in other regions of the world – keeping the
Sachsenwald typeface from achieving wider adoption at that time.
Monotype saw the opportunity to revive and preserve a beautiful design
and bring it into the modern era – as blackletter usage becomes more
commonplace in areas such as publishing, fashion and album covers.

Pricing and Availability

The Wolpe Collection by Monotype is available now. The Albertus Nova,
Wolpe Fanfare and Wolpe Tempest designs are available in Latin, Greek
and Cyrillic. The Wolpe Pegasus and Sachsenwald designs are available in
Latin, only. The Wolpe Collection of typefaces is available for purchase
in sets on Fonts.com or as individual fonts on MyFonts.com including:

The Wolpe Exhibition is open exclusively to the press on September 26
and then to the general public beginning September 29 through October
30, 2017 at the Type
Archive in London. It includes both the new Wolpe Collection and
Wolpe-related archive materials like sketches, notes and book jacket
designs, on display. Those interested in attending can reserve space here.

Facebook Live Stream of Wolpe Panel

To kick off the Wolpe Exhibition, Monotype will host a panel of design
experts to discuss both Wolpe’s typeface legacy and the inspiration
behind the new typefaces. Moderated by John Walters, editor of Eye
Magazine, the panel will include: Monotype Type Designer Toshi Omagari;
Ian Chilvers, partner at design agency Atelier Works; acclaimed book
cover designer Alistair Hall of We Made This; and illustrator, type and
logo designer Rian Hughes of Device. Monotype will stream this panel
live on Facebook at 1:30 p.m. EDT on September 26. Interested parties
can view it here: https://www.facebook.com/ByMonotype/videos/1504727796285113/

About Monotype

Monotype provides the design assets, technology and expertise that help
create beautiful, authentic and impactful brands that customers will
engage with and value, wherever they experience the brand, now and in
the future. Further information is available at www.monotype.com.
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